It was the first effective antidepressant, sedative, and pain reliever.  However, opium addictions only began in the eighteenth century, when the British began to monopolize the sale of opium.  It is no coincidence that when the British, with their chemical industry, began selling opium that these chemically altered opiums began creating addictions.  Completely natural, unadulterated plants are not addictive until they have been "refined" and concentrated.  As a result of what the British did, opium eventually became illegal under Chinese law, but the sale from the British continued.

In 1839, the Emperor, Tao Kwang, ordered his minister Lin Tse-hsu to deal with the opium problem.  Lin requested help from Queen Victoria, but was ignored.  As a result, the Emperor confiscated 20,000 barrels of opium and detained some foreign traders, many of whom were British.  The Chinese believed that because their ceramics and silk technologies were superior to their British counterparts that their naval ships would also be.